Auto, energy stocks lead the gains.

Buoyed by strong sentiments across Asia and Europe, Indian stock markets performed well today and ended well above the dotted line. While the BSE-Sensex closed higher by around 230 points, gains on the NSE-Nifty came in at around 72 points. S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE Smallcap indices also closed strong, edging higher by around 0.8% and 0.5% respectively. Auto and oil and gas stocks emerged as the top gainers.

Asian markets closed sharply higher today with shares in China leading the region. The Shanghai Composite was up 2.32% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 2.00%. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed higher by 1.15%. European markets have opened higher in early trade with shares in Germany leading the gains. The rupee was trading weak at 65.11 against the US$ in the afternoon session.

Healthcare sector finished the day with modest gains with IPCA Labs and Opto Circuits leading the gains. According to a leading financial daily, Swiss pharmaceutical firm Helsinn Healthcare SA has settled patent litigations relating to its anti-nausea injection Aloxi with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. The settlement will allow Dr. Reddy's to market the generic version of Aloxi in the US on 30 September 2018 or earlier under certain circumstances. Aloxi generically called as palonosetron HCl injection is used to treat chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients suffering from cancer. Reportedly, Aloxi had sales of nearly US$416 million in the US and Canada for the year ended 31 March.

Radhika Pandit, Managing Editor of ValuePro recently wrote an article in the '5 Minute Wrap Up Premium' highlighting the issues faced by Dr Reddy's. The article gives an in depth view of the company's delay in product launch.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is reportedly in talks with nine of the 11 payments bank license holders to offer operational solutions. The company has been a key participant for government deals in the domestic market. In the banking sector, it works with most of the leading lenders. State Bank of India, the largest public sector bank, has its core banking operations on TCS' banking platform, BaNCS.

Tata Consultancy Services has announced its financial results for 2QFY16. The company has reported a 5.8% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase in its consolidated sales and a 6.5% QoQ increase in its consolidated net profit in 2QFY16.

Rupee may stay stable in rest of FY16 on strong macros: Ind-Ra

The rupee is likely to remain steady for the rest of the fiscal helped by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, which will lead to higher capital inflows and a comfortable balance of payment situation, says a report.

"The key reasons for the expecting stability in the rupee are better macroeconomic fundamentals of the economy among the emerging economies, a comfortable balance of payment situation, the postponement of policy normalisation by the US Fed to December 2015 or maybe to 2016 and a healthy capital inflow," India Ratings and Research said in a report Thursday.

The rating agency expects the rupee to trade in the range of 64.50-66.25 for the remainder of 2015-16. The rupee today opened at 64.74 as against the previous close of 65.03.

It does not foresee much turmoil in the global financial market if the US Fed raises rate either in December 2015 or takes it to 2016.

The report said some short-term volatility in the rupee can occur due to readjustments carried out by foreign institutional investors in their portfolios towards the year end or in the beginning of 2016.

"However, since the rupee is currently overvalued in terms of the real effective exchange rate, some amount of nominal depreciation in the currency will only enhance the competitiveness of the country's exports and therefore, is unlikely to lead to any policy or RBI intervention," the report said.

The decision of Central Bank of China to allow the yuan to depreciate by 3.4 percent over the two consecutive days -- August 11 and 12, 2015 -- rattled the emerging market currencies in that month.

Despite witnessing some volatility and depreciation, the rupee has remained one of the most stable emerging market currencies, the rating agency said.

It had depreciated 3.11 percent till end-September 2015 when it ended at 65.74 on September 30, but recovered to 64.78 by October 9.

According to the report, the better macroeconomic fundamentals of the country in August 2015 saved the day for the rupee.